Possible to Limp Home With Broken Fan Belt?

[ericr]

one of the Murray Fahnestock books claims you can drive home, carefully, even if your fan belt broke; that the radiator will function as a thermo-syphon system......does anyone believe this?

[Jim/GA]

Yes, it will, as long as you keep moving to put ram air over the radiator to cool it off. But you won't have a generator either. So if you want to run at night with the lights on, that will limit your range until the battery is dead.

The wind blowing through the radiator will also turn the fan blade on the water pump a little, which will turn the water pump impeller. That, too will help move the coolant a little.

Prepare to have to replace a lot of lost coolant, due to boiling. It's actually the steam bubbles in the engine coolant outlet that lift the hot coolant out of the block, which draws cool coolant into the block from the radiator.

[Synchro909]

At our last National meet, a guy drove 3,500 Km (2,200 miles) with no water pump. The shaft had come apart where it had been joined as part of a conversion to a ceramic seal. Those pumps are no longer available, thank goodness. The gauge was reading high the whole way but it didn't boil.
Short answer: YES, you can drive home with a broken fan belt. The ignition will continue to work with power drawn from the battery. If home is a looonnnggg way, you might have to recharge the battery each day but it beates the heck out of walking!

[WHN]

Like the Model T, the Model A uses a syphon cooling system. The Model T did not have a water pump which the Model A has. Primary cooling is done by syphon, the fan is helpful at idle and up to about 15 mph. The water pump really only helps at higher speeds.

The syphon cooling even works when the car is not running.

Syphon starts at about 180 degrees at out let, top of head. Coolant inlet at bottom of engine is normally about 20 degrees cooler in properly running cooling system. There should be “NO” boiling.

Goggle “Rocky Mountain Model A Club Cooling System Presentation”. Good complete information on how the system works. It is very simple. Enjoy.

[ronn]

and what is wrong with a spare piece of rope?

[Oakhurst]

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Originally Posted by ronn

and what is wrong with a spare piece of rope?

Or zip ties or panty hose? (Not yours of course) Fun trip home!

[Stew Masche]

I got rid of my spare piece of rope because too many times I've felt like strangling someone.

[eagle]

The other option is to spend five minutes pulled off the side of the road and put a new one on...

[Tom Endy]

I carry a spare fan belt under the back seat. Had to use it once way out in the boonies when the fan belt shredded.


Tom Endy

[apbright]

Further to a different post, I, too, found myself able to drive some distance (unknowingly) with an intact but non-spinning fan belt (pulley failure). Worst case, as Mr. Jim observes (and I experienced) is that coolant boils, thereby dissipating excess heat.

I regularly measure the temperature-difference between the coolant outlet or top-of-radiator and the bottom-of-radiator or coolant inlet, and find about 20ºC (36ºF) difference between the two, which, when found, I interpret to mean proper radiator operation (using an infra-red, non-contact thermometer, quite a handy device, I find).

I suppose it's possible to drive many kilometers with an inoperative water-pump w/o boil over at modest driving speeds (~40mph?). We don't really have that luxury here on California freeways, avoiding being rear-ended by Aston Martin's, etc.

[dave in australia]

Yes you can, I have had to do it, I only had about 30Km (18m) to drive to get home. It was day, so the battery only had to feed the spark. The temp hardly went over normal, but it is a modern flat tube core, and it normally runs around 20C above ambient. It went up to about 35C above ambient.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

I "wonder" if the early Model Ts, without a pump, were QUITE troublesome?
Bill W.

[ericr]

[QUOTE=Tom Endy;1670276]I carry a spare fan belt under the back seat. Had to use it once way out in the boonies when the fan belt shredded.


Tom Endy[/QUOTE


yes, Murray advised that too...but didn't we have a series of posts some time ago to the effect that dealers were selling fan belts that were slightly too short? I have replaced mine before and had to take the generator off...not just merely swing it in.

[ronn]

I got rid of my spare piece of rope because too many times I've felt like strangling someone.





somebody dealing with "anger" issues?



I thought model A's were supposed to be "relaxing". LOL